A biased look at psychology in the world

October 03, 2013

Getting Castrated

A study published in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science explored the personal history of men who voluntarily seek genital
ablation (castration) for reasons other than male-to-female transitioning. The authors focused
on three groups: (a) men who have had voluntary genital ablation; (b)
men who desire genital ablation and fantasize about it (self-described
“wannabes”); and (c) those who claim to be merely interested in the
subject of castration. An online survey was posted at eunuch.org that
asked about religiosity, childhood abuse, sexual orientation, parental
threats of castration, and whether the respondents had witnessed animal
castrations in their youth. Data were collected on 301 men who had
obtained genital ablations (mean age 45.4 years old), 1,385 wannabes
(44.3 years old), and 1,242 individuals who were reportedly “just
interested” in castration (mean age 41.8 years old). Results confirmed that: (a)
having witnessed animal castrations during childhood, (b) having been
threatened with castration as a child for behaviours deemed
inappropriate by a parent figure, and (c) being homosexual or bisexual,
are all common among individuals with extreme castration ideations. In
addition, the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse among men who had
genital ablations and wannabes was 1.4 times greater than among “just
interested” individuals. For men who had obtained genital ablations,
“very devout” parental religiosity was 1.8 times more common than it was
for wannabes and 1.3 times more common than it was for “just
interested” individuals. Individuals who were raised by “very devout”
parents and who were also sexually abused had significantly greater odds
and likelihood of reporting being voluntarily castrated and/or
penectomized than respondents without those risk factors. This study may
aid clinicians in identifying and distinguishing individuals who are at
risk of genital ablation through self-surgery or by nonprofessionals.